Ah, Egypt! Vast country of sand and history, cut through by the nourishing course of the Nile. Land of the original God-Emperors, the Pharaohs, who raised pyramids and sphinxes to say "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Venturing through this country, O Bold Troper, you will likely find merchants from faraway lands, wily theives, ill-tempered camels, and olive-skinned seductresses with braided wigs and kohl-painted eyes. Also home to fanatical bald priests in lapis collars and leopard-skin robes, who usually wind up being turned into mummies after calling down the wrath of the gods upon their heads (usually for getting involved with the aforementioned beautiful olive-skinned kohl-painted seductresses in some way). Wretched slaves labour to build pyramids in the scorching sun beneath the whips of merciless overseers... despite the fact that the great monuments were actually built by paid labourers with their own guilds.

Often considered a culture so exotically different (especially in the field of architecture) to Western and Eastern civilizations alike that some theorize outside inspiration.

Popular tropes from this time period are:

Ancient Astronauts: Often attributed to this time period, even though history and science have both marched well beyond believing in them. What you see in Stargate SG-1 is just similar, though.

Brother-Sister Incest: With a religious reason (or possibly excuse). The Pharaoh's family was supposed to be descended from Ra, the chief deity of Egypt (most of the time). Thus keeping it in the family meant less human blood to dilute the divine heritage.

Guyliner: Eyeliner was considered androgynous and both men and women wore it to make their eyes look bigger. And because it was made out of a substance that repelled flies. And because the stuff reduced the glare from the sun. A group of pyramid workers even organized a strike to get more make-up as eye protection.

Historical In-Joke: Comedies set in Ancient Egypt often have a scene in which one of the protagonists knocks the Great Sphinx's nose off, leaving it in the form we know today . (Alternately, the story has it that one of Napoleon's cannons blew it off.) However, the nose is documented to have been firmly attached at the time of the Arab invasion of Egypt in the seventh century AD (and detached by the time any Revolutionary Frenchmen got there). The most likely story is that a Muslim fanatic knocked it off about six hundred years after the Arab conquest—and then was hanged by the Sultan for vandalism. (While normally being hanged for vandalism might normally seem like Disproportionate Retribution, most archaeologists and historians feel it to be entirely justified.)

History Marches On: Although slavery existed in Ancient Egypt, it is generally accepted by modern historians that its crowning achievement, the Great Pyramid of Giza, was not built by slave labour, but by the equivalent of paid contractors who were mostly skilled workers (the equivalent, because the pay took the form of food and other supplies, money not having been invented yet).

The Abrafaxe have an adventure during the Amarna period, where they meet Queen Nefertiti (Mosaik No. 234-254).

The eight-part series Sur les Terres d'Horus ("In the lands of Horus") by Isabelle Dethan, as well as its spin-off Khéti, fils du Nil ("Kheti, son of the Nile") are set during the reign of Ramses II. The main series deals with the investigation of various crimes that lead to a major conspiracy.

The Queen of the Damned novel by Anne Rice reveals Kemet (Ancient Egypt) to be birthplace (undeathplace?) of the original vampire, Akasha, the titular queen, although Akasha herself is not originally Egyptian. A good chunk of Maharet's story takes place in Kemet or around it.

She also wrote The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned, in which Ramses the Great and Cleopatra have both been made immortal.

Features prominently in The Bible. In The Book Of Genesis, Joseph ends up there after his brothers sell him to some Egyptian traders. He works his way up from slavery to prime minister. In The Book Of Exodus, another pharaoh has conquered and enslaved the Israelites, and Moses has to get him to let them go free. Elsewhere, Egypt is referred to, though often as a nation of godless heathens right along with the Canaanites, Assyrians, and other non-Yaweh-worshipping peoples, because of Values Dissonance.

Pyramids sends up Ancient Egypt to way past eleven. Terry Pratchett creates a country where building pyramids is all and everything and which is up to 3,000 years behind the rest of the Discworld. It takes a gifted Assassin to bring it all crumbling down.

The Tomb Kings of Warhammer are this Up to Eleven. The liche-priests told the pharaohs that they knew how to prepare bodies for life after death, ensuring them a heavenly afterlife. Unfortunately, it turns out they were only capable of raising them as mummies. Now the Tomb Kings war with each other, as every one of them still thinks himself the rightful king of Khemry with a bunch of related usurpers to eliminate.

Pharaoh is, astoundingly enough, set in most of Ancient Egypt, spanning several dynasties of pharaohs.

Age Of Empires I has Egyptians as a playable faction and uses the Egyptian campaign as an extended tutorial. They have powerful chariots, but limited late-game units.

Age of Mythology has Egyptians as a playable faction, using cheap but weak soldiers, a variety of units based on Egyptian myths, and a Pharoah who can speed up worker unit tasks.

Web Original

The Global Guardians PBEM Universe featured the heroic weather-controlling crimefighter Pharaoh, who was, in fact, Pharaoh Imhotep II brought forward to the modern era by a supervillain's plot.

Repeatedly lampshaded in Atop the Fourth Wall. Linkara points out all the traps and tricks and concludes that it's a death trap. Now when it appears, a picture of the pyramids appears with the Imperial March from Star Wars accompanying it.

The eighth Chrono Hustle story is set in Ancient Egypt. Jack meets Imhotep.

Papyrus, a French/Canadian animated series adapted from the aforementioned Belgian comic book of the same name.

It's supposedly set in Arabian Nights Days, but Aladdin has the aforementioned "character makes the Sphinx's nose fall off" gag. The Sphinx would have already been covered over with sand by the medieval period, not still being worked on.

Especially considering that they'd have been strict Muslims, and prohibited from building such a statue anyway.

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